Meet The Bean Cartel’s Master Roaster

The Bean Cartel’s Alan Chan reveals what it takes to be a Master Roaster, the key to training your palate, and what it’s like to sweep the floor at industry awards.

Alan Chan was destined for a career as an accountant until he pulled out of his university course, retreated to the hospitality industry in which he’d grown up, and found his way into coffee.

Fast-forward almost two decades and he’s now a multi-award-winning Master Roaster at one of Australia’s fastest growing specialty companies. Yet, his path to achieving his dream role as a roaster wasn’t always easy.

“Growing up in a traditional Asian family, it was expected that I’d become a doctor, lawyer, accountant, or something along those lines,” Alan says.

“At the age of 20, I was studying accounting, commerce, and law at university but after two years it was killing me. I couldn’t handle spending so much time on a subject my heart wasn’t really in. Eventually, I switched to hospitality management as it was something I knew well and enjoyed.”

From an early age, Alan had been a part of Australia’s bustling hospitality industry. His parents had established Chinese restaurants in both Sydney and Melbourne, and while he was studying he worked at a local Japanese eatery. At the end of his hospitality course, he gained a role at Hilton on the Park in Melbourne and worked his way up the ranks.

“After just under five years at Hilton, a friend of mine in the coffee industry offered me a role as a barista at their café. I’d recently become interested in latte art competitions – Australia had just won a few world titles back-to-back – and I wanted to get more serious about coffee, which had become my hobby,” he says.

Over the next couple of years, Alan built up his barista skills at a few venues across Melbourne. When he wasn’t working, he was training to compete in barista throwdowns and other latte art competitions.

“I’ve always been into competitions because I’m quite competitive. Being a barista meant I could learn from the best and practise consistently,” he says.

After winning several local latte art competitions, his extra-curricular activities broadened to include roasting. In the late 2000s, there weren’t many roasting schools around so he taught himself the trade, at first on an air roaster and then upgrading to a Behmor.

“At the time, coffee roasting at home was pretty old school. I bought my green beans online and had to do all my own research on development, roasting to different degrees, and letting it age,” he says.

“I was winning a few latte art competitions and wanted my roasting abilities to match my barista skills. By this point, my career goal was to become a header roaster, so I was accumulating as much knowledge as possible.”

In 2010, Alan turned his hobby into his profession when he landed a roasting role at Coffee Hit in Melbourne. After polishing his skills at several specialist roasters, in 2019 he became Master Roaster of The Bean Cartel. He now oversees the growing specialty roaster’s vast roster of blends and single origins, as well as hosting barista and latte art workshops from the Notting Hill headquarters.

For those thinking of a career in roasting, Alan says the role is extremely rewarding.

“I love that I get to work with people from all walks of life, not just my colleagues and the venues we supply but also the green bean merchants and the farmers themselves,” he says.

“I also love working with the coffee. Every harvest, each single origin is different from the last and over the past three years we’ve witnessed so much innovation and experimentation with things such as fermentation and carbonic maceration.”

He does warn the role isn’t all fun and experimentation, however.

“A lot of baristas who want to go into roasting ask me how to make the move and I’m always honest with them that sometimes it can be a bit boring. Once you’ve achieved the desired roast curve, you have to replicate it day in, day out,” he says.

“You’ve got to be very interested in coffee and learning about the roasting process to get the best out of the role.”

Factors outside a roaster’s control, such as market volatility and extreme weather events, can also impact the role. He says that, since COVID-19, it’s become increasingly difficult to source some of the coffees he’d like to work with.

“There’s been a bit of a domino effect. Multiple factors have impacted the market, so sourcing green beans is a lot more difficult. Demand is growing yet the supply isn’t there, therefore prices have gone through the roof,” he says.

“For us, the difficulty is sourcing the best quality beans and then trying to pass a small fraction of that additional cost to our customers. Thankfully, many of them have been very understanding.”

Being able to cup coffees and detect key flavour profiles is an essential skill required from roasters. According to Alan, one of the best things you can do to improve your cupping skills is broadening your palate.

“My advice for baristas who want to improve their cupping is to experience a lot of different flavour profiles. Eat a wide range of cuisines with a variety of flavours, such as Thai, Indian, and Korean,” he says.

“Even just trying different varieties of apples will deliver a whole spectrum of flavours.”

When it comes to roasting, Alan’s favourite origin to work with is Colombia as he says the coffee beans are one of the easiest to roast and produce a mind-blowing flavour profile. Decafs, however, are a lot trickier.

“Decaf coffee can be harder to roast as, unlike most regular coffees, you can’t roast by colour because of the decaffeination process. Generally, you have to roast a bit darker, but you don’t want it to burn. You also don’t want to under roast it either as it would be sour and under extracted,” he says.

Alan’s roasting prowess was catapulted into the limelight in October 2024 when The Bean Cartel was awarded eight medals in the Golden Bean Australasia awards. While the roaster had collected the accolades in previous years, he was thrilled to have won gold for Dr Chan’s Seasonal Blend in the Milk-Based category.

“The Milk-Based category is the most coveted, because 95 per cent of the population in Australia drink coffee with milk,” he says.

“They announce the winner of this category last. I was stunned when they called out our coffee. We had already won seven medals, but this was the cherry on top.”

While The Bean Cartel team are thrilled with their sweep of awards, Alan’s competitive nature means he has his sights set on the top title: Golden Bean Overall Champion.

“Winning the Milk-Based category was great, but the next step is Overall Champion,” he says. “To have the highest score of all the competitors that year would validate my hard work and dedication for coffee.” 

For more information, visit thebeancartel.com.au